Members of J.C. congregations pray together with contemplative music, meditate on favorite parables
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Parabolic perspectives and melodic mantras swirled around the barrel-vaulted ceiling of Immaculate Conception Church in Jefferson City.
It was an ecumenical evening of faith-sharing and Taizé music, hosted by the Downtown Jefferson City Clergy.
“I’m reminded of a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas,” said Father Matthew Flatley, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish. “He said, ‘All of creation together is a much more beautiful reflection of God than any one part of it alone could ever be.’”
Members of several local churches — including guest speaker Father Jeremy Secrist, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Salisbury, St. Boniface Parish in Brunswick and St. Mary of the Angels Parish in Wien — took to the pulpit to share insights into their favorite simple stories shared by Jesus.
The Gospel narratives contain many these stories, known as parables, in which Jesus likens himself or the Kingdom of God to something universally familiar, usually with an unexpected twist.
Coming home
Brian Young has been a member of Immaculate Conception Parish for 39 years.
In his favorite parable, Jesus tells the shocking story of the Prodigal Son (and the Forgiving Father) (Luke 15:11-32).
The younger of two sons asks his father for his inheritance, runs away to another country, spends the money on fast living and winds up penniless, lonely and pathetic.
He returns home, planning to offer himself to his father as a slave, reasoning that he would at least get something to eat.
But the father sees him coming from a distance, runs to greet him and throws a massive celebration to welcome him home.
“This parable speaks to my soul!” said Mr. Young, whose own father had been a strict disciplinarian.
“And what that did to my brothers and sisters and me is that it left us angry and bitter,” he said.
They moved away and had no contact with their father.
Years later, the father was in a nursing home, and seven of his children came to see him.
“We walked into that nursing home and saw him lying there, just a shell of the powerful man he had been,” said Mr. Young.
All the anger, bitterness and resentment immediately disappeared.
After that, “we cared for him, we went to visit him on a regular basis, we showed him the compassion that he never showed us,” Mr. Young recalled.
When his father finally died, the family held a huge celebration for him.
Mr. Young loves that parable because he’s lived it.
“It’s about letting go of bitterness,” he said. “We all need to do more of that.”
Persistent or vengeful?
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to share a favorite parable from the Gospel,” said the Rev. Kristie McGonegal, an ordained minister and retired hospital chaplain who currently serves as a deacon at First Baptist Church in Jefferson City.
“But I think choosing a favorite parable is kind of like asking you, ‘What’s the favorite tack you ever sat on?’” she said. “Because I think they’re supposed to be a little bit of an ‘ouch’ moment in every parable.”
She shared a reflection on Jesus’s Parable of the Persistent Widow and the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8).
The unjust judge did not want to bother with a widow who had a grievance, but she wouldn’t leave him alone.
Jesus said the judge finally ruled in the woman’s favor, simply to spare himself of her endless pleading.
Rev. McGonegal, drawing on insights from New Testament scholar Amy Joe Levine’s book, Short Stories by Jesus, challenged the common understanding of this parable as simply encouraging people to pray steadfastly for what they need.
“There’s no ‘ouch’ factor in that,” she said. “There’s no tack to sit on.”
Perhaps, Rev. McGonegal suggested, the widow wasn’t seeking justice but vengeance. The Greek word used in Luke’s Gospel could mean either.
“Among the most common Bible translations, the King James Version is the only one that records the woman as saying, ‘avenge me’ to the judge,” she noted.
In this light, the widow in the parable is no longer a sympathetic character.
“Neither person in the story is admirable,” said Rev. McGonegal. “Neither one is interested in justice.”
She encouraged everyone to reflect on whether they’ve ever been like the widow or the judge.
“Have I intentionally subverted justice so that I could have my own way?” she queried. “Or have I ever subverted justice because it meant less work for me? I’m sitting on a tack here, no matter which way I move.”
Within the layers of this parable, she asserted, Jesus is asking: “Where does your moral compass lie?”
“If we can answer that honestly and are willing to make adjustments in order to make Christ our true North, we will make him more present in our world,” she said.
Into the fold
The Rev. Heather Patton, associate minister at First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, grew up in her faith community and returned to it as an adult.
In between, “I operated on the edges of Christian faith,” she said. “I was a dabbler or a wanderer, you might say.”
She spent most of her teens and 20s learning more about other religions than her own.
Her favorite parable is the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12-14), in which Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in order to search for one that’s lost, and rejoices upon finding it.
“One night during my wandering years, I was feeling particularly lost and confused about life in general, as teen-agers are prone to do,” said Rev. Patton.
She picked up the Bible she had received as a child and played “Bible roulette” — randomly putting her finger on a page in an effort to find out what God wanted to tell her that day.
“Some days, that doesn’t work out very well,” she said. “But I was really fortunate that night because this parable is where I landed, and that moment has stuck with me ever since.”
She kept returning to that parable whenever she felt wandering and lost, knowing that the Good Shepherd was on his way to find her.
“I the message I take most from it is, no matter how far I’ve wandered from practicing my faith, no matter how often I’ve felt lost in the wilderness of life, Jesus is always out there looking for me, and he always rejoices when he finds me and brings me back to where I’m supposed to be,” she stated.
By its fruit
The final meditation came from Fr. Secrist.
Previously for five years as pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City, he was an active member of the Downtown Jefferson City Clergy Alliance.
He said his favorite parable does not technically qualify as a parable, but it has all the characteristics of the parabolic form in Scripture.
It is the story of Jesus and his Apostles passing by a barren fig tree on their way into Jerusalem in Mark, Chapter 11.
Figs weren’t in season, but Jesus cursed the tree for not producing food for him to eat.
Upon passing by the tree again the next day, the Apostles notice that it has withered in a day’s time.
Why would Jesus curse a tree for not producing fruit when that fruit is out of season?
“Well, remember with me that as Psalm 1 expresses, the one who ponders God’s law is like a tree planted in near the streams of water, whose leaves never fade, and whose fruit is always abundant,” said Fr. Secrist.
“If we separate ourselves from Almighty God, no matter what our activities in life might be, we will never bear fruit that the Lord desires,” the priest stated.
Especially in this age of busyness and technological distractions, “are we truly being fruitful as the Lord desires as he’s really created us to be?” Fr. Secrist inquired.
“This parable is a cautionary tale,” he said. “We will not be blessed but rather cursed if we are not fruitful about the good work the Lord intends for us — no matter who we are, no matter what our place in life might be — so that the Lord may continue to bring about that good work that is then linked to and sustained by our prayer.”
With one voice
In between each of these and several other reflections, Fr. Flatley played recordings of songs composed and sung in the Taizé form.
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
“Be still and keep watch with me.”
“Veni, Sante Spiritus.”
Taizé is an ecumenical monastic community in France. Its people create simple, melodic arrangements of Scripture passages, psalms and other Church texts to be used as a pathway to deep and prayerful contemplation.
This was the third year Immaculate Conception Parish hosted an interchurch prayer service.
Other presenters included Angel Lira and Paulina Tramel from Immaculate Conception Parish and Virginia Brizendine from the First United Methodist Church.
Near the end of the service, the people stood in a circle around the aisles of Immaculate Conception Church, offering up intercession for one another, those closest to them, and needs of the world.
The event concluded with a reception and fellowship in the parish annex.
